Thursday, April 28, 2011

One crazy week

I'm a mommy!

On Good Friday, my hubby and I were working in the yard planting roses. Then the phone rang. A baby girl had been born that morning in our city and the birth parents wanted to give her up for a closed adoption.
We went to the hospital and met our daughter for the first time. it was truly love at first sight. We were there for a few hours and then went late night shopping for Anya.
We already had a BBQ scheduled for Saturday for Aaron's soldiers. So we broke the news to everyone. Everyone was so excited and supportive. Once everyone left to go back to their homes, we them got cleaned up and dressed and on our way to the hospital to see Anya. I was going on no sleep since the stress of the possibility of the change of heart phone call was constantly going through my head. But just holding my baby girl was worth everything.
Sunday came and my heart was in my throat. Hoping and praying that everything would go alright. It took hours for the hospital finally get everything ready, but she finally was able to come home.
Aaron had to leave just hours later for the following week and a half. So I am doing everything on my own right now. I am blessed enough to have the support of family, though they are too far away to do much. I have wonderfulmpeople at church that have been bringing me dinner every night to reduce my stress.
I'm getting very little sleep, but it's worth it. Speaking of which, my daughter is crying right now. Better change her diaper. Will update later.

Saturday, April 16, 2011

The Story of How Our Journey to Parenthood Began

I guess that I should start off by introducing myself, my name is Sarah. I am a 27 year old stay-at-home wife. I am married to my knight in shining armor, Aaron. He is a 31 year old EOD SFC in the US Army. We met in June of 2006. After a whirlwind romance we were married in a simple ceremony in November of 2006. 
We found out that we were expecting 2 weeks later. The pregnancy ended in a miscarriage after the holidays. Aaron was deployed during this time, seeing as he deployed to Iraq 13 days after our wedding, so I had to pick myself up and went back to substitute teaching to help pass the till he came home. The 15 months came and went and he finally came home. The moment he came home we were given orders to pack up, say goodbye to my family and move to Louisiana. Aaron stayed very busy at Fort Polk training EOD soldiers that were about to deploy, but we still managed to get pregnant twice and miscarry both. We saw a fertility specialist who tried very hard to help us get pregnant. I had two laparoscopies and several rounds of fertility drugs and IUIs while we lived there for a year and a half. 
When Aaron received the news that he got picked up to get promoted to SFC we were also told that we would have to move again. There was no space for another SFC at the unit. So, we had to pick up our lives to settle into a new home in El Paso. This is the first time that we actually bought a home. We have a beautiful home surrounded by wonderful neighbors. Shortly after moving here we found out that I was once again expecting. Sadly, while going downstairs to bring the dogs in, I passed out and fell down the stairs. That morning I broke a foot, busted a knee and miscarried for the last time. We have not gotten pregnant since. 
The last miscarriage was probably the least painful of them all for the simple fact that, right before finding out that we were pregnant, we had signed up with an adoption agency called AdoptHelp. Aaron and I had talked about everything we wanted out of life and came to the conclusion that it didn't matter how it came to pass, we just wanted to be parents. So, instead of spending thousands of dollars on more fertility procedures and IVF, we decided that we should open our hearts and home to a baby who was in need. 
Since we signed up with our agency we have been matched twice and both matches ended in a failed adoption. The first birth family changed their mind a month before the baby was due, and we found out that the second birth mother was "scamming" money from us and another couple through another agency 2 weeks before the birth. Though we have had broken hearts and mourned the loss with the close of each failed adoption, we are remaining hopeful and prayerful that the baby we are meant to love, cherish and care for for the rest of our lives will come to us one day.